NL East Enemies: 2017 Miami Marlins

[Edgy MD]

The Fishies, looking to deal themselves in, have sent three prospects to the Reds for hirsute starter Dan Straily.

Straily is a mediocre pitcher coming off a good year, and who hits arbitration next season, so maybe the Reds picked the right time to move him, but how can Cincinnati, of all teams, give up a major league pitcher?

Marlins are coming back with last year's offense but seem to be set on shoring up the pitching staff after losing their ace.

c: J.T. Realmuto
1b: Justin Bour
2b: Cheatin' Dee Gordon
3b: Martín Prado
ss: Adeiny Hechavarria
lf: Marcell Ozuna
cf: Christián Yellich
rf: Giancarlo Stanton

sp: Adam Conley, Edinson Volquez, Wei-Yin Chen, Straily, Stony Brook Boy
rp: A bunch of guys plus Hunter Cervenka

[seawolf17]

It says something about the Marlins' short history that a historically average Tom Koehler 2017 season would place him solidly among the all-time Marlins pitching "leaders." If he hits his BR 162-game average this year, he finishes 2017 in sixth place in wins, second in losses, third in starts, fourth in IP, third in most hits allowed, third in most runs allowed, fifth in Ks.

[Edgy MD]

Tom has been decared the all-time 52nd ranked Marlin.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Wow, 52 is probably higher than he can count!

[Edgy MD]

I forgot to mention, but Straily may be displacing Bartolo Colón as the worst hitter in the division, as he is 1-for-55 in his career, achieving an astounding career slash line of .019 / .056 / .019 // .075, depending on whether or not you let Tom Koehler do the math.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I'm a little more worried about all our Division enemies this year than last year.

I think the Marlins have a good shot to finish last, don't get me wrong, but in general fewer cupcakes than 2015 and 2016 by a long shot, and we struggled against several division foes last year.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Many of the eggheads looking at this stuff say the Straily trade was a steal for Cincinnati, in that they got Straily for nothing last year and come away with 3 prospects including their No. 2 pitching prospect who hits 101mph and whose name is... Luis Castillo. Straily is probably better than whoever the Marlins had as their #5 last year but seems like a reach for them resource wise.

[Edgy MD]

I kind of agree. The Reds can ill-afford to ship out any major league pitching. So if they sent Straily packing, they must've been very excited by the package.

[Ceetar]

I'm not worried about anyone but the Nationals, The Marlins are trash.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I'm kind of worried about the Mets

[Ceetar]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I'm kind of worried about the Mets

well, i mean, perpetually. But the Mets should be good.

[Frayed Knot]

[u:3hiefd32]Marlins KTE - April 7-9[/u:3hiefd32]

Just what we want in early April in the Northeast, all all-night game weekend series!!

Marlins dropped 2 of 3 in Washington, losing 4-2 and 6-4 before winning Thursday afternoon/night in 10 innings.


Friday - 7:10
Wei-Yin Chen [5-5; 4.96; 1.28 in 22 2016 starts] vs Zach Wheeler [0-0; 0.00; 0.00, 0]

Saturday - 7:10
Adam Conley [8-6; 3.85; 1.40 in 25 starts] vs Robert Gsellman -- This was supposed to be Syndergaard doubling up prior to needing the 5th starter but the blister has pushed him back to Sunday

Sunday - 8:10 ESPN
Edinson Volquez [10-11; 5.37; 1.55 in 34 starts for KCR] vs Syndergaard - Opening Day starters taking their second turns
Volquez held the Nats to 1 run over 5 IP on opening day.



The 2017 Marlins return pretty much the same lineup from last year (one that scored fewer than the 2016 Mets)
C - JT Realmuto
1B - Justin Bour
2B - Dee Gordon
SS - Adeiny Hechavarria
3B - Martin Prado
LF - Christian Yelich
CF - Marcel Ozuna
RF - Giancarlo Stanton


Prado is currently DL'd, over the first series they used a combo of Derek Deitrich (2) and Miguel Rojas (1) during week 1

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't like that Sunday is a night game.

[Frayed Knot]

I'm even more pissed that Saturday is because that's something totally within team control and they somehow decided this is a good idea.
Both our April home game Sundays will be night games.

[metirish]

Fireworks night , cold as fuck there on a Saturday night watching fireworks

[Guest themetfairy]

Why would anyone have a fireworks night in early April?

Seriously - why?

[metirish]

themetfairy wrote: Why would anyone have a fireworks night in early April? Seriously - why?

I was there one year early April for fireworks and it was really cold, had to wait for the FDNY to give the all clear as it was windy ....

[Edgy MD]

I hadn't realized that Barry Bonds' replacement as Marlins' hitting coach is Mike Pagliarulo, who used to play across the diamond from him with the Yankees.

I imagine Mattingly is as much the hitting coach as anybody, but Pags is the first guy Mattingly has had in that spot who isn't a roid-tainted former superstar deigning to sign on as a coach in order to help rebuild his public image.

[Frayed Knot]

metirish wrote: themetfairy wrote: Why would anyone have a fireworks night in early April? Seriously - why? I was there one year early April for fireworks and it was really cold, had to wait for the FDNY to give the all clear as it was windy ....

Oh good because there's no chance it'll be windy tonight.

[Edgy MD]

Marlins don't really sport any former Mets, unless you count the likes of special assistant to the president Jeff Conine, who also does pre- and post-game reports. They're stashing Matt den Dekker in New Orleans, so we may see him sometime this year, if not this series.

Former WNBC-NY sports anchor Craig Minervini is a long-time Marlins in-game reporter.

[Frayed Knot]

Marlins didn't even change their bullpen all that much either.
Their 'Big Three' from last year are the same, AJ Ramos closing (he got the 10th inning save last night) with that Bear Claw guy (Barraclough) and (good evening Mr.) David Phelps setting-up from from the right side.
And despite the fact that we'll see two LH starters this weekend (Chen & Conley), now that longtime lefty bullpenner Mike Dunn has gone off to rockier pastures (Colorado) the Fish don't even currently have a
LHR on their roster.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy MD wrote: Marlins don't really sport any former Mets ....

Which reminds me ... Jeff Francoeur is teamless.

Teamless.

[Frayed Knot]

Marlins Question of the day in advance of our second series with them.

You're being offered your choice of either Giancarlo Stanton or Christian Yelich for the next five seasons.
For purposes of this exercise let's ignore current contract and service time status -- I'm the agent for both and am offering you either/or for the exact same five-year deal -- and that yours is a generic team
so who you've currently got on your roster doesn't influence the choice. But you do have to take them at their current ages, conditions, and with all their real or perceived strengths and weaknesses.


Yelich: Age 25 (26 in Dec); 6' 3"/195; BL/TR; coming off a .298/.376/.483 season. Plays both LF & CF; above average runner.
Debuted mid-season 2013; Full-time player by '14; 2016 was his first double-digit (21) HR year. 19th in 2016 MVP

Stanton: Age 27 (28 in Nov); 6' 6"/245; BR/TR; .240/.326/.489 in 2016. Decent glove but probably wouldn't want him in CF, better arm than CY.
Debut in June 2010; Full-time by 2011 but played 140+ games only twice since (2011 & 2014). Never fewer than 24 HRs even in partial seasons, three times 34 or more. 2nd in 2014 MVP



Who ya' going for?

[Lefty Specialist]

Stanton. Not even close. He's a game changer.

[Edgy MD]

Traumatic injuries are accumulating, though.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I might say Yelich because he'll likely age better and seems to be on the upswing while we've likely already experienced Peak Giancarlo. Yelich is like Olerud.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, I started thinking about this during our last series and am leaning this way too.

Even though his last two seasons were just the 2nd & 3rd in his career, Yelich's better BA/OBA edge brought his RC/27 nearly to Stanton's level (6.04 vs 6.33) while being available some 40% more (1,060 ABs vs 690)
Then thrown in better runner & fielder, a closing of the gap in power which is GS's obvious big strength, with a feeling that Yelich may be, like say Murphy or young Edgardo, that type of opposite field hitter finding his power stroke as he matures.

[Frayed Knot]

Series preview/KTE for Four-Game Series April 13-16

The only real change since we last played these guys way back four days ago is that they've put SS Adeiny Hechavarria on the DL (he sat the final game of the earlier series) and replaced him with J.T. Riddle.
Riddle got his first ML hit on Wednesday night, a check-swing grounder down the third base line which was so slow that, if this were a fishing contest, he'd be required to throw it back.


THU Apr 13 - 7:10
Robert Gsellman vs Wei-Yin Chen
Chen held us to 1 run on 7 hits over 6 innings in last week’s game

FRI Apr 14 - 7:10
Noah Syndergaard vs Adam Conley
1 run on 1 hit over 5 IP was our total off Conley

SAT Apr 15 - 7:10
Jacob deGrom vs Edinson Volquez
5 runs on 7 hits thru 6 IP

SUN Apr 16 - 1:10 (an actual day game!! -- only the 2nd one of the season and of course it comes in the one NL East city where you don't need day games in April)
Matt Harvey vs Dan Straily

Straily is the one guy we didn’t see last week. He was briefly a fan fave as a rookie in Oakland (2012) but since then has bounced around with short stints with the Cubs, Astros, Reds before being dealt
to the Marlins this winter.
Faced him once as a Cub (Aug 16th, 2014) and whacked him for 4 runs over 5 innings in a 7-3 NYM win.


That we're playing seven games in ten days vs Miami and yet somehow Don't get to fatten up the ERA of the criminally under-educated Tom Kohler [2-8, 4.36 in 18 starts career] seems so unlikely that
it must have been rigged by the league for some reason.

[Frayed Knot]

[u:2qrxs6pw]KTE - Marlins May 5 - 7[/u:2qrxs6pw]

We start the day in a three-way tie for 2nd-4th with the Marlins and the Phillies, and a 1/2 game ahead of the Braves -- so we could basically wind up anywhere after this weekend is over.
And hopefully they can chip away at the 6.5 lead of Washington.
Braves host Milwaukee while the Nationals are at Philly, which means that there's a good chance that the nine games this weekend involving NL East teams will all be rained out.


Friday - 7:10 (Rain Permitting) Montero vs Tom Koehler [1-1 in 5 starts; 5.40; 1.56]
We somehow managed to miss Koehler so far this season, a fact which certainly contributes to our sub-.500 record.

Saturday - 7:10 (Rain Permitting) Gsellman vs Wei-Yin Chen [2-1 in 5 starts; 4.33; 1.19]
We saw Chen twice in the first two weeks of the season. First time he shut us down for 1 run on 7 hits over 6 innings, the second time we smacked him around for 4 runs in the 2nd inning then chased his ass outta there with two more in the 3rd.

Sunday - 1:10 (Rain Permitting) Harvey vs TBA
This was supposed to be Edinson Volquez’s turn in the rotation, but he got DL’d right after his last outing, a start which produced the stunning pitching line of 4.1 IP, 3 ER on 3 Hits with [u:2qrxs6pw]9 Ks and 8 Walks[/u:2qrxs6pw]!!


Martin Prado is back from the DL since we’ve last seen these guys and so probably will continue his .700 hitting and stellar defense against us (actually his career mark vs NYM is a quite normal .283/.325/.424 but I suspect it’s a lot better in just the most recent years)
SS Adeiny Hechavarria is also back from his sick bed. This strengthens their bench by sticking Miguel Rojas on it as he was doing well in the fill-in role. Ichiro [.152/.200/.273] not so much.

Everyone in their regular lineup is hitting decently well with the odd exceptions of Justin Bour and Giancarlo. Both have low BAs, but even more unusual is just 4 HRs/7 XBHs for Bour and 7/11 for Stanton despite playing pretty much everyday. I mean, shyeeeet, Reyes & Granderson can almost match that.
Instead it's been Marcel Ozuna who's been their best weapon on offense this season [.301/.365/.563 w/8 HRs] and is even getting on the hi-light films with more loooooong bombs than Stanton.

[Edgy MD]

If this game goes down, it'll be Terry Collins' 1,000th as Mets manager.